


Player

by Llixale



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-13 22:40:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21235682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Llixale/pseuds/Llixale
Summary: Sam knows the game but he still feels like a loser.





	Player

Sam would swear on everything that he holds dear that he knows the game. He knows how to play the game very well in fact. Dating men tend to make you learn a few things quickly, therefore, no, he isn’t hurt or deep in his feelings.

Not when it comes to Barnes.

Maybe his jaw shut tight when he thinks of how it started. But it’s only because Barnes had been the one to flirt first and send signals.

Sam confronts him one night, when he can’t take the smiles and the soft touches and the nice words.

“You know this is flirting right? People could take the wrong idea with how you act”

“I think you got just the right idea Sammy” Bucky had answered then.

So, Sam, after some reflection, proposed a date. He did not used the word “Date” when he suggested that they went for a drink a few days later but it’s just technicalities.

They had a small planning quid pro quo, leading to Sam cursing the other man in his head for a few hours but changing his tune as soon as he received an “I’m free” text.

He should have known then that he wasn’t playing it right.

Then, they have a second non-date a few days later, unplanned this one, and it's just as good as the first one. They tentatively touch each other hands a few times and Sam says that there’s no pressure and that he wants to see where it would take them. He means this.

Barnes agrees, so he thinks they are on the same wavelength.

After that, Barnes seems to be quite busy for someone who isn’t actually Avenging.

Yeah, he starts to be petty like that because, in his head, of Barnes wanted to see him, he would propose something right?

Sam has almost gave up when Bucky finally manifest himself to ask that they see each other on the following Monday. He hates how he jumps on the occasion, trying to keep his mind away fro the fact that he is already kind of gone for Bucky.

Sam knows the game, in theory but feelings are feelings he guesses.

On the third date, they kiss when it‘s time to go back home. It’s good and tender, Bucky doesn’t give the impression that he ever wants the kiss to end.

Sam is sold. Simple as that.

He wants more of that and more of Bucky but tries to take his time, it’s what Bucky wants too he guesses. With someone else, he would have already ended up in their sheet and deep in them too by the first time they had a “date”.

With Bucky, it’s different.

He goes as far as admit it to Scott. He has no idea when they started trusting each other like that but, oh well. He is funny, smart and clearly knows a lot about complicated relationship situations. 

After that, seeing Bucky seems to be impossible, again. At first, it’s a trip with Steve, then it’s a mission (still not Avenging) then, he is sick because apparently, his version of the serum doesn’t protect him from absolutely everything.

Bullshit, he wants to scream.

Sam knows the game.

Game over.

He doesn’t care. At least, he tries.

When he tells this to Scott, his friend reveals that he doesn’t think Barnes is right for him anyway and that he deserves better.

“But I don’t want better” he thinks bitterly “I want him”

Funny how you can avoid someone even when you both live in the same building. It’s like being haunted. Traces of Barnes here and there but he is nowhere in sight.

After a month, Sam tries to get out there, see other people.

He can’t stop being bitter, the “I don’t care” changing into “I said no pressure, why couldn’t he just tell me he wasn’t interested?!” To sometimes “What did I do wrong?”

One, two, three times he comes close to confront him. He never does.

Eventually, he gives up.

It’s been three months and he doesn’t want to feel like shit anymore. The only thing Barnes did is stop talking to him, it’s not a big deal.

Two months more and he genuinely feels okay. There’s so much to be busy with anyway. It’s okay, really. He tells this to Scott too, the man isn’t convinced at all.

So what it’s this eagerness when he receives a text late at night from Bucky? No, Bucky doesn’t care, so he shouldn’t either. He already said next, he isn’t on this page anymore, in fact, he isn’t on this book altogether!

He put his phone on plane mode and move on...

...For a grand total of ten minutes before he throws himself at the phone to read the message.

“Hey”

What does that mean, hey? He thinks. He bites his lips, his fingers ghosts dancing on the screen, his mind racing to find something to say back, something to say “Fuck you” but also “I miss you”, “Oh, So now you are alive?” Or “Be my man”

He put the phone on the table.

Sam knows the game, he would swear, so why does he keep loosing at it?


End file.
